Lunga Point (CVE 94) - Naval Cruise Book

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both to port and starboard. 'l.'herc is no doubt in our minds but that the planes that came at us that night were all Kznonikazes, and all dc- termined to get the Iitlllgll Plllillf, but that hail of gunfire that we threw at them at every turn apparently proved to them that their cllorts would be in vain, which undoubtedly accounts for one of them doing as much damage as he could by jumping on the APD, a much smaller ship. Finally, at 1942, wc secured from Gen- eral Quarters, with the satisfaction that Hour teamn had turned the trick again, leaving no doubt in our own minds that we had finally be- come a tried and tested fighting unit of the Fleet. We arrived at our operating area off Oki- nawa Gunto the next day and, again, set about our mission of bombing and strafing the japs in the face of our advancing troops on Okinawa Shima, and that day, 3 April, proved to be an eventful day in the life of the Lunga Point. MAN OVERBOARD ! At 1045 that day, while we were making a sharp turn to port in a rather heavy sea, one of our fighter planes on the starboard quarter of the flight deck was torn loose from its mooring, and fell Hinto the drinkf' Banta, j.P., Sic, was standing watch as Surface Lookout No. 3, and he was right in the path of the plane as she began tearing herself loose. Banta had no idea of letting that plane land on him, so he just jumped Mover the side into the waters of the Pacific. It is said that, even as he was in mid-air on his 40 foot jump into the sea, he took off his cphones, saying, f'Oontrolg Lookout 3 going off the linef, Fortunately, he had his kapok life jacket on, and he jumped far enough for the falling plane to miss him. After float- ing about in the heavy sea for a few minutes, the U.S.S. Patterson, one of our faithful escorts that had been with us since October, picked him up and he was returned to the ship via the , ,M Smoke billows from warehouse near Naha Domar following direct bomb hit by our planes. breeches buoy none the worse for his experi- ence. OUR ADMIRALB, PAYS Us A V1s1T The highlight, however, not only of Tuesday, 3 April, but of our entire first year in com- mission occurred at 1141 that day, when a visiting plane came to rest on our flight deck, and out jumped ComEsOarForPac, Admiral O. T. Cal Durgin himself. Not one soul, even our Skipper, knew the Admiral was com- ing over to see us. In fact, it was so unprec- .l11-in Lunga Pain! from the air, east of Okinawa. 97

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Q. U.S.S. Dickerson ablaze following Kamikaze hit off Kerama Retro. and the other crashed in flames. At 184.5 an unidentified plane started a dive on our port beam and all our port guns opened up, and he, too, couldnjt C'take our barrage and he turned away at 1000 yards. We saw this plane no more, and, after the gunfire he went through, it is only logical to assume that he is now en- joying a bowl of rice with his ancestors. While this plane was diving on our port bow, another plane, believed to be a 'CNick,H was diving on our starboard bow, but he also turned at 1200 yards and attacked the Mitchell, dropping two small bombs which fell close astern of her, then heading again for us. Apparently hit by either us or the M itchell, he turned away smoking, and Admiral Durgin CComEsCarForPacj honors us with a vist off Okinawa Gunto. WT crash-dived into an APD, which we took to be the Dickerson, because the ship where the Dick- erson had last been seen was suddenly a blazing inferno. While those last two planes were diving at us simultaneously, from both port and starboard, every gun on the ship had them un- der lire. ln the semi-darkness, as all guns belched forth flames from their smoking muz- zles, our ship resembled a picture of the Gates of Hell being suddenly thrown open on a dark night. The attacks we had repulsed during that day proved to be by far the most extended period we had remained under attack, and, actually, there had been no time during our combat Banta, Sic, is returned aboard after jumping over the side to avoid falling plane. career that we had been more vulnerable. That morning, we had been attacked while at anchor in a coral atoll unable to maneuver. Even had the Old Man decided to get under- way, it would have been slow going for us, maneuvering our way out through the hazard- ous coral reefs that surrounded the anchorage. So we just had to sit there like a Clay Pigeon and fight the best we could from our ccsit- ting-positionf, That, however, proved good enough. Then, in the attack that evening, we didn't have our usual number of aircraft car- riers and as large a screen with us as we had previously had when under attack. There we were, the main target, with only our three de stroyers comprising the Task Force to fight off all those planes Even then maneuvering was none too easy because we hadn t gotten into the open sea when the attack started, and were bounded by coral reefs not too far distant ' ,' cc aa . j , 9 J I if .g

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edented for an Admiral to leave his Flag Ship in the active combat zone and lily over to an- other carrier that the Old lXf1an could hardly believe his eyes when he saw our distinguished guest get out of the plane. As soon as the Captain got down to the flight deck to greet the Admiral, he innnediate- ly told the Skipper that, after hearing of what we had been through at Kerama Retto the day before, he just had to come over to see us. He K .lap Dinah destroyed on Okinawa. also told the Old Man that he wanted to talk to our Ship's Company over the general an- nouncing system. The Captain was only too glad to comply, so, after he had lunched with the Skipper, he talked to us for a few minutes, and he could have talked to us Hfrom now on without pleasing us more than when he said, After hearing what you men went through at Kerama Retto yesterday, I just had to come over here and personally see what it is that makes the Lunga Point click. His entire talk was most complimentary and was appreciated by us far more than he will ever know. Ad- miral Durgin is a very busy man, and he had to make his visit a brief one, so at 1334. he Hew away from our decks and back to his Flag Ship, leaving us all with the definite feeling that we had reached the climax in our first year's operations. And, with humble grati- tude for this gesture on the part of the Admiral, we re-affirmed our determination to continue to justify our Admiral's coniidence in us. The Admiral's visit was about all you heard anyone aboard talking about for sometime thereafter. We were, however, also pleased and grateful to receive from Admiral Blandy, Comrnander Arnpleiilmious Forces, on 4 April, the following clispatch: 'Ii'I'eIE ACZGRESSIVE SPIRIT SHOWN AND RESUIXIS AC ZCTOMI'I,ISHED BY ALL OF YOU DURING THE PAST WEEK HAVE MADE I'l' A ,PRIAXIIJEGE FOR ME TO BE A MEMBER OF THE TEAM X A CiRANIJ SLAM Fon OUR SQUADRON In all fairness to all pilots everywhere it should bc explained that the number of planes shot down by a particular Squadron is, to a certain extent, luck. In other words, the Squadron that happens to have the TCAP CTarget Combat Air Patrolj duty when and where the enemy comes in is, naturally, going to Usplashu more planes than the Squadron simply Hying LCAP CLocal Combat Air Patrolj over vessels off shore. It so happened that, up until this point, our fighters hadn't had much of an opportunity to Hshow their stuff. On Friday, 6 April, our Squadron finally got the break they had been waiting for. We happened to have the TCAP over Okinawa Gunto that day when the Sons of Nippon came down, and they made a f'Field Day of it, shooting down eight enemy planes late that afternoon. Our pilots who were responsible l I r Destruction of large building 7 miles NXE of Naha, Okinawa.